One of the two contenders to be the next leader of the British Conservative Party refuses to commit to a measure many say is essential to tackling illegal migration.
Alleged ‘darling of the Right’ Kemi Badenoch hinted at a leadership hustings yesterday that the “biggest weakness” of her rival Robert Jenrick is his opposition to Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
One recent case saw a criminal migrant who had been deported from the UK being able to stay after sneaking back in thanks to the ECHR. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who believes there should be a referendum on Britain’s membership of the convention, has also highlighted to Parliament that sufficient removals will not take place while the country remains in.
Jenrick, whose own migration record is hardly squeaky clean, told Tory members that past ECHR rulings had been “ridiculous” and “shameful.”
Yet Badenoch appeared to suggest that whatever the rights and wrongs of ECHR membership, the issue was too toxic to discuss:
I think that will divide our party, it will mean that the in-fighting and the squabbling will continue. We need to come to a consensus.
She also argued that the migration programmes of other countries in the ECHR should act as blueprints for Britain’s policymakers, for example:
France is able to send back about 70% [of illegal migrants] where we send back about 10%.
But that just isn’t true, as Tory councillor Tom Jones damningly pointed out: “No country signed up to the ECHR has got anywhere near a 70% removal rate. We must leave!”
Despite this failing, among others, pundits say that Badenoch won yesterday’s leadership hustings and that the race is “hers to lose.” A wider issue is that the parliamentary Conservative Party as a whole is unlikely to back leaving the ECHR, whether their leader pushes the issue or not.
Labour prime minister Keir Starmer has also insisted that under his watch, “we will never withdraw.” He’s too busy taking freebies and punishing pensioners, anyway.
